Parazoa
| Parazoa Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Sponge | |
| Scientific classification (obsolete as paraphyletic) | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Subkingdom: | Parazoa Grant & Todd, 1838 |
| Subgroups | |
List of ediacaran genera for more. | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Parazoa (Parazoa, gr. Παρα-, para, "next to", and ζωα, zoa, "animals") is an obsolete subkingdom that is located at the base of the phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom in opposition to the subkingdom Eumetazoa; they group together the most primitive forms, characterized by not having proper tissues or where, in any case, these tissues are only partially differentiated. It generally includes a single phylum, Porifera, which lack muscles, nerves and internal organs, which in many cases resembles a cell colony rather than a multicellular organism itself. All other animals are eumetazoans and agnotozoans (Agnotozoans are possibly paraphyletic or even nonexistent in studies), which do have differentiated tissues.